What's in a Name
by smidget
Summary: In which Harry and Ginny name each of their children. AU because non-canon names.


**what's in a name**

_In which Harry and Ginny name each of their children. __**AU because non-canon names.**_

(A note: Now, I am something of a canon fanatic and I wouldn't ever say canon _ought_ to be something else because that's sort of missing the point, isn't it. That being said, the Potter childrens' names are one of my least favorite things about canon, and while I never disliked Harry and Ginny's name choices with _quite_ the same intensity as some others, I thought it would be fun to explore a different path for them…)

* * *

I.

As Ginny was now likely to snap at anyone who made the slightest reference to her due date the family question of choice went from w_hen's that baby going to hurry up and get here_ to _what_ are _you going to name it?_

"I'll know when I see him," Ginny repeatedly answered.

Although she and Harry had not elected to learn the baby's gender Ginny was inexplicably certain that it was going to be a boy and she was quick to correct anyone who suggested otherwise. The odds were, after all, in her favor. Harry on the other hand remained rather quiet about the gender _and_ the name, and merely smiled at Ginny's insistance that they wait to see him in person. Ginny could tell he had ideas on the subject but she couldn't see any need to press him on it. The baby would come when it did and one way or another it would have a name. And so she had taken to joking she would hold full responsibility for naming their first child, in response to which Ron was known to roll his eyes and mutter darkly about what sounded suspiciously like, "_Pigwidgeon_." This had sparked many a row.

"I'll not have my neice or nephew - "

"Nephew."

" - be named some ridiculous giberlish like - "

"Ooh, _giberish_. You know I quite like the sound of that."

"_Ginny_-"

"Giberish Potter. What a name, I _love_ it…"

Harry and Hermione had long since stopped trying to mitigate these discussions and instead joined up to watch in amused exasperation.

And so passed much of the month of October - with Ginny more likely to pop with each passing day and still no name for the soon-to-be-first-born Potter child. The night of the thirtieth came around to find the Potters cozied on the sofa of their sitting room with the windows open to the brisk outdoors. Ginny had claimed it to be positively baking in the house and rather than argue Harry had taken to wearing extra sweaters and socks. Plus the couch was much warmer with the two of them, Ginny's head resting in the gap between his shoulder and his neck, her feet flung up over the armrest so he wasn't complaining.

"October baby or November baby?" Ginny asked, rubbing at her stomach in little circles.

"November baby," Harry answered automatically.

"You seem certain," she said with a surprised laugh. "I'm rather hoping for the sooner the better. Though the chances of October baby are looking rather slim now."

"I didn't mean - it's just that tomorrow is Halloween."

His tone was a forced kind of casual and Ginny could have kicked herself for not making the connection. Harry never made any sort of fuss about the day but to have your first child born on the same day your parents had died would bring up some rather conflicting emotions.

"Maybe a happy occasion would help soften the memory of a sad one," she said quietly and she felt Harry sigh extremely subtly.

"Or erase it."

Ginny shifted on the sofa and sat up (with great difficulty) so she could turn and face her husband. He was staring at her in that way that he only ever looked at _her_ - so open and sad that it broke her heart a little every time.

"What if we named the baby James?" she asked after a moment, and his expression closed off a little. Ginny knew he had thought about the possibility, had almost said it half a dozen times, but he never _had_ said anything, never once brought it up.

Finally, what he did say was, "Seems a bit like tempting fate - James Potter, born 31 October…."

Ginny rested her hand on Harry's cheek. "I still think it's a lovely name."

"So do I."

Ginny heard the unsaid _but_…

"I don't want him to feel like he has anything to live up to. He'll get enough of that just being a Potter."

"And I'm sure he'll be perfect. How about as a middle name then?"

Harry crinkled his nose. "It'd be the same as mine."

"And what's wrong with that? Already had plans for it, did you? Planning on using Harry?"

"_Merlin_, no."

"Well then."

Ginny smiled up at him. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you wanting to honor your parents' memories, Harry. I think this is a nice way to remember your dad, no matter what day our baby is born."

Harry smiled down at her and Ginny felt suddenly warm despite the chill coming in from the window. "We still need a first name," Harry said with a smile.

Ginny raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. "I thought we'd agreed on Giberish."

"Not on your life."

"But it's so _original_."

"It really isn't."

"I think it's a _gorgeous_ name."

"Oh, haha."

As it happened, the next day passed much the same as the day before until Ginny was woken from her mid-afternoon nap with a sharp pain and a pool of water soaking into the bed sheets. She roused Harry, who was dozing next to her, and they were at the hospital inside of ten minutes. Soon after that the rest of the Weasleys were gathered, and just a few hours after midnight on November first one more was added to their number.

When Ginny finally held her newborn baby boy in her arms, Harry's arm draped around her shoulder, she nearly cried because Patrick James Potter was perfect in every way and she knew he would live up to anything he wanted to be.

* * *

II.

"_Oi_, pregnant lady coming through!"

Ginny finally resorted to shouting when she had (more or less) patiently waited outside the Burrow's kitchen door for more than five minutes. There was something of a hold up as the kitchen was positively brimming with Weasleys all cooing and whispering over something that Ginny could not really care less about. Well, this was not entirely true as the object of all the affection was actually her new neice, Rose. But the nearly-ready-to-burst babe in her belly was really insisting that she use the facilities _right now_, and the July heat was _sweltering_, and _Merlin help her_ if she had to bounce back and forth on her swollen ankles for one more second.

Her shouting did finally get the crowd to part before her but it also caused Rose to start howling and Ginny passed through the kitchen under fire of numerous glares and scowls. But she was far too used to crying babies to care and she offered them a jaunty wave as she entered the hall.

"Nature calls!" she sang over her shoulder as she hurried (as much as possible for a woman eight months pregnant) up the stairs.

When she made her way back down to the kitchen with an empty bladder and a sweeter disposition she found the crowd to have dispersed. Ron and Hermione were seated at the table with Rose, both of them looking as they had for the past two weeks since becoming parents - simultaneously exhausted and jubilant.

Her mother was the only other occupant. Molly Weasley stood by the sink doing a terrible job of pretending to scrub the dishes clean and a very obvious job of staring at her newest grandchild with watery eyes.

Ginny made her way over and leaned her weight against the counter.

"Every grandchild is like the first one for you, isn't it?" she asked in mock exhasperation.

"Every grandchild is an equal blessing," Molly replied briskly. The two of them watched the happy little family at the table for a moment before Ginny could not stop herself asking, "Is it like that with children too? Is it just as exciting the second time around?"

Her hands found her belly and she stared at them resting there rather than catch Molly's eye.

It wasn't that she doubted her love for the baby, but with Patrick it had all been so new. Everything was a surprise and although it had been more work than she had ever done in her life, she and Harry had had endless fun figuring it all out. They still were really.

"Even more so with your own children," Molly said quietly. Ginny chanced a glance at her and saw her smile warmly, the wrinkles in her face an oddly comforting sight. "You'll see," her mother continued. "You have a third one and you won't be asking me that quesiton again."

Ginny nodded and Molly slipped out of the kitchen into the next room where there were still the voices of many Weasleys. She turned back to find Hermione watching her from her seat. Ron was walking in little cirlces, bouncing Rosie in his arms.

"So have you thought of a name yet?" Hermione asked and Ron looked up, openly curious.

"No," Ginny said lightly, "But there are still a few weeks left. Nothing to hurry about."

"Has Harry suggested anything?"

"He's been silent as a monk about the whole thing."

"Interesting analogy," Ron put in with a smirk.

Hermione shot him a stern glare.

"Okay, okay…"

"We honestly haven't talked much about it," Ginny continued as though Ron had not spoken. "PJ's still sick and we've been taking it in turns to stay up with him. Don't remember the last time we had a moment alone and even then we don't exactly spend it _talking_ - "

"_Aaand_ that's quite enough of that," Ron interjected loudly, but he was, once again, ignored.

"I think we want something simple. Nothing extravagant."

"Albus Severus is out then?" Ron said, sighing in mock disappointment.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I do wish you'd stop bringing that up."

"Yes," agreed Ginny, "It may have been funny the first time but now it's making me feel ill."

"Harry thought it was funny."

"Harry has a unique sense of humor. Carry on about it and he'll start thinking it's a good idea to have our child be a walking punchline."

"The day anyone names a child after Snape it'll be a travesty."

"Snape was a hero," Hermione tried weakly, but Ginny could tell she was doing her best not to giggle at Ron's antics.

"Doesn't stop him being a right foul git," Ron said sagely.

Hermione did giggle this time, but Ginny could no longer see the humor in it. Thinking of Snape brought up too many bad memories. He was connected to too many unhappy things. Naming your child after your late parents was one thing. But to harken back to such a dark time in all of their lives - especially when everything was so happy now - seemed an unnecessary burden.

They had fought a war so that these children could live better than they did, she would not have them carrying the weight of the dead.

And so a few weeks later - three days after Ginny's birthday in fact - Ginny and Harry did end up picking a perfectly ordinary name. Benjamin David Potter was born a healthy baby boy in the middle of the afternoon and when Ginny first laid eyes on him she knew her mother was right - this was going to be _quite_ as exciting the second time around.

* * *

III.

"A _girl_. But I don't know what to do with a _girl_. Girls are different. Girls are _scary_."

Harry was still in a state of shock. He and Ginny had, for the first time in three pregnancies, decided to find out the sex of the baby before it was born - before she was born. The fact that they were having a girl had been a wonderful surprise, but Harry was having a little bit of trouble fully grasping the situation.

They had shared the news with the family at dinner earlier and now he and Ron were alone in the Burrow's back garden, seated on the wooden fence and staring out at the field. It seemed the time for manly pats on the back and, somehow, brandy, but in lieu of such things Ron and Harry stole away out back and sat on the fence like they had done since Harry had first visited the Burrow all those years ago. How strange it was now to think he was about to have a daughter.

"But what do you do with girls?"

Ron merely shrugged. "Same thing you do with boys I imagine."

"Easy for you to say. You've already done it."

"Oh believe me, there's nothing _easy_ about it," Ron said with a grimace. "And Hermione assures me it will only get harder when Rose get's old enough to go off to Hogwarts and she's meeting new people. And that's not even stopping to mention when she starts going on _dates_…"

"Oh fuck." Harry put his face in his hands. Ron didn't seem to notice.

"But I figure twenty-eight years is plenty of time to work on that _particular_ front."

"Twenty-eight years?" Harry asked into his hands before looking up at Ron.

His friend raised his eyebrows incredulously. "You expect Rosie to date before she's thirty? Over my dead body."

"Over some poor bloke's more like," Harry quipped.

Ron scowled. "Yeah, you just wait."

Harry made a face and shoved Ron lightly on the shoulder. They sat in amicable silence for a few minutes before Ron brought up what had become by now the Usual Question.

"Thought of any names yet?"

But rather than the usual, _not yet what's the rush_, Harry remained pensively silent for a moment.

"We're talking about it," he said finally. "We gave PJ my dad's name so we want her to have my mum's name for the middle."

"It's a nice name."

"It is."

More silence, in which Ron could tell that Harry was holding something back, working himself up to admitting something he had not yet said aloud. But rather than press him about it like either of the girls might do Ron merely waited and he was not disappointed.

"It's strange to think I'm older now than my parents ever were," Harry admitted. "Third baby on the way. I used to wonder if they'd have wanted loads of kids."

Ron could think of nothing to say in response to this. He had often wondered the opposite of his parents - what if they'd not have wanted so many children? What would it have been like to be an only child? There had been a time when he had envied Hermione and Harry this, but those days were long passed.

"Well, I'm sure you'll pick a good name," Ron finally said and Harry nodded.

In the quiet, peaceful spring night outside the Burrow naming his baby girl suddenly seemed to Harry the most impotant thing he would ever do. Maybe it was because he and Ginny had agreed not to have any more children after this one. Maybe it was because having a daughter felt so much scarier than having a son. Maybe it was because it was ten years next month since the war had been over. Whatever it was exactly, there was something very full circle about the whole thing.

But then, maybe it was just the fact that he was here at all to name his daughter. That he had two sons already, and Ginny, and a real _life _and maybe what was so special about naming his little girl was that it was a perfectly ordinary thing to do.

And so Andrea Lily Potter was born on the nineteenth of May in the early hours of the morning. It was an ordinary birth and an ordinary day and like any other set of parents that day Harry and Ginny looked at their newborn baby girl and knew that their child was going to be extraordinary, simply because she existed.

* * *

**an. well something of a mess but there you have it. hope you enjoyed it.**


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